I thought I did a topic like this, but I couldn't find it.  If one does exist, oh well, why not start fresh lol  Here is an interesting one to begin ...


Berlin was an American band famous in the 80s for the Top Gun love theme Take My Breath Away as well as the hits No More Words and Sex (I'm A...).  In 1982, they released their debut album titled Pleasure Victim and in Canada, it was released under the name Berlin (U.S.A) to avoid confusion with a Canadian band called Berlin (who also released their debut album in 1982).  Since the American band had been around longer, they filed a lawsuit, won, and all their further releases in Canada were released as Berlin. 

I'd never heard of the Canadian group before and it makes sense because the lawsuit crumbled them, and their album titled Young Warrior was their only release and spawned no charting singles.  I recently found a copy of it on vinyl and it's a really good new wave album.  I'm actually listening to it as I make this thread lol

https://img.discogs.com/FoqYV0uds62lMAogkdY7d_8L9TU=/fit-in/373x599/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4335747-1363216817-5899.jpeg.jpg https://img.discogs.com/7pwqHFmQe-eb7FC0wAI5WqhZq54=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-6004052-1533314318-5917.jpeg.jpg

In 1981, British group Modern Romance released their fantastic debut album titled Adventures in Clubland.  The core members of the group at the time were Geoffrey Deane and David Jaymes, and in Canada, the album was initially released as if they were a duo.  What's weird is the record label was lazy and basically covered the Modern Romance logo on the album cover with a white box that said Geoffrey Deane and David Jaymes, and printed it as a sticker and pasted it over the spine and label on the record itself where it said Modern Romance. 

The copy I have of this album just has the Geoffrey Deane and David Jaymes sticker on the spine and on the label on the record itself, but has the Modern Romance logo on the cover (though it's a used copy and perhaps it maybe was also a sticker over the logo and the previous owner of it peeled it off, but I don't know as I have never seen a copy of the one pictured on the right to know for sure). 

I don't know why their name was changed but on the Canadian release of their 1983 follow-up album Trick of the Light, they were just credited as Modern Romance.  Not sure if that has anything to do with Geoffrey Deane leaving after the first album, but it's still confusing and I don't accept this band as anything other than Modern Romance

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Modern_Romance_-_Adventures_in_Clubland-cover.jpg https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0356/5902/2473/products/R-6979504-1433107664-4882_jpeg_82698386-210b-48d2-a2b3-8d57c1392fd2_500x.jpg

Different bands with similar or identical names happens more often than you might think.

It was quite a problem on last.fm back in the days before last.fm committed harakiri.  If the names were similar there'd be zillions of people shouting at the careless scrobblers in the comments section saying things like "FIX YOUR GODDAMN TAGS!!!".  If they were identical names, people would just throw their hands up in despair.  This was especially problematic when the groups had really different styles of music.

Going back even earlier, we have The Byrds from the United States and The Birds from England, both formed in the 1960s.  Today, most kids under a certain age would probably not know either group, but if they do, it would most likely be the former as their music and their members (which included Roger McGuinn and David Crosby) eventually became more famous than the latter.  But I remember as recently as the 1980s, my classmates in college would sometimes specifically say "The English Birds" to help distinguish between the two.

In the mid-60s, there were at least two bands called The Warlocks.  One renamed itself The Grateful Dead and the other became The Velvet Underground.  Famous in Dead lore is the story of how Jerry Garcia picked the new name.  He grabbed a dictionary and opened it to a random page and picked what his finger was pointing at.

In the 1970s, there were two bands formed called The Beat, and just like in the Bird/Byrd case, one was British and one was American.  In the 1980s, the former commonly became referred to as The English Beat, especially outside the UK.

In the 1970s, there were two bands formed called The Beat, and just like in the Bird/Byrd case, one was British and one was American.  In the 1980s, the former commonly became referred to as The English Beat, especially outside the UK.

I hadn't realised that there was more than one "The Beat" band, but I did know about the UK one. Here in the States we almost always refer to them as the English Beat.

In the 1970s, there were two bands formed called The Beat, and just like in the Bird/Byrd case, one was British and one was American.  In the 1980s, the former commonly became referred to as The English Beat, especially outside the UK.


I have an album by the American group and it's credited as Paul Collins' Beat.  I think the name The English Beat has a better ring to it.  The Beat sounds boring

Anyone remember the American heavy metal group KIX?

Their 1983 album Cool Kids was released in Canada under the name U.S. KIX.  This one I am stumped on as I don't know of any other bands named KIX

https://img.discogs.com/eccmDl_8OytTqNyJcWxUqok-W-I=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7003711-1516504436-9649.jpeg.jpg https://img.discogs.com/LzxpT0Erdh5Z22E74imWkosz_Ug=/fit-in/600x628/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-5322252-1401846487-5002.jpeg.jpg

Anyone remember the American heavy metal group KIX?

Their 1983 album Cool Kids was released in Canada under the name U.S. KIX.  This one I am stumped on as I don't know of any other bands named KIX

https://img.discogs.com/eccmDl_8OytTqNyJcWxUqok-W-I=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7003711-1516504436-9649.jpeg.jpg https://img.discogs.com/LzxpT0Erdh5Z22E74imWkosz_Ug=/fit-in/600x628/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-5322252-1401846487-5002.jpeg.jpg


Most times when I come across the name KIX, a certain breakfast cereal comes to mind, lol. I guess this band wanted to differentiate itself from the cereal somehow.

And then there's the small matter of Yazoo, or Yaz as they were known as in Northern America.

There is a house act from the UK called The Shapeshifters.  They had a few hits in the mid-late 2000s in Europe, most notably the 2005 UK #1 hit Lola's Theme.  In the US and Canada, they were known as Shape:UK due to conflict with an American hip hop band called The Shape Shifters

I've never heard of the hip hop group before, but the house act is great.  Crank this one loud!!

kIC0aQ56ASE

In the US and Canada, Wham! were originally known as Wham! U.K. to avoid confusion with a disco group in the late 70s called Wham who had a hit in 1978 called Lovemaker.  It seems the UK addition to the name was very brief and only appears on initial prints of their 1983 debut album, so if you ever see a copy of Fantastic by Wham! U.K. and it's a decent price, pick it up because it's more rare than a $2 steak!  I have never seen one myself, but they do exist!

https://recordcellar.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/whamfantastic.jpg

Here is another example that comes to mind:

Toto Coelo, the UK new wave band best known for “I Eat Cannibals”, was referred to as Total Coelo in the United States so that no one would confuse them with the American rock band Toto (or think it was an offshoot of them).